Fox casts Pattinson as Daredevil, makes biggest mistake in comic book adaptation history

CB Droege, 17th March 2011

The new Daredevil movie has found a star, and it means that no one will want to see the movie.

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t yesterday, I reported the new Daredevil movie had found a director, but that no plans for a star had been made. In fact, I lamented the possibility that Ben Affleck might come back.

After today’s announcement that Robert Pattinson (known best for his role in the Twilight movies) might take the role, I wish that they had gone with Affleck.

Let’s look at this from a demographic point of view, the way their marketing people should have done. Who is this movie for? What audience are they expecting?

The people most likely to be interested are the coveted 18-35 year old males, especially the geeks who grew up with comicbooks. The rest of the 18-35 year old males will likely give the movie a miss because the last one was so poorly received. Why go see the sequel, when you didn’t get the first one?

As for the geeks, none of them are Twilight fans. None of them. In fact, some of them go beyond a simple lack of fan status, and hate Twilight for its bastardization of the urban fantasy genre. The likelihood of any Daredevil fans going to see a daredevil movie with Pattinson in it is low.

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o, who then? Twilight fans? The Twilight audience is almost entirely female, and mostly the pre-teen and post-teen age groups.

Not many Daredevil fans in that group, I’d wager. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the overlap between Daredevil fans and Twilight fans is less than 1%.

So, the studio is relying on Twilight fans who want to see more of Edward so badly that they don’t care if the movie isn’t for them and Daredevil fans who don’t care if one of the enemies of their hobby is staring in the movie. This seems like poor planning.